Saturday, May 10, 2014

Family Health History

I was recently reading an article about hereditary
diseases and I started to think about the multiple diseases I should be looking
at in the Brubaker line of the family.
In his own history, in addition to the regular childhood diseases, Dad
had whooping cough at about age five. He
suffered from diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
He also suffered from heart disease that prevented him from having back
surgery in his old age.

The Parkinsons is an interesting
consideration, because the verdict is still out on whether or not it is a
hereditary disease. In the case of the
Brubaker’s: Dad had it, I think Uncle Jack and Uncle Bud had it. I think Grandma Brubaker also suffered from
it. So what is going on? One theory, the idea I like to call the “Pure
Crapola, Theory” of Parkinsons is that maybe the family lived on farms and was
exposed to multiple pesticides and fertilizers in their early lives. The theory says this may have caused the
Parkinsons. I read about this theory in
the Minnesota newspapers because there seems to be an increasing number of
Parkinsons sufferers in the Upper Midwest.
This theory seems to be along the lines of when in doubt blame someone
else for your troubles. Anyway, that is
all just rambling thought.

A point to consider is the heart
condition of the Brubaker family. It is
not intended as some great compliment to say the Brubakers had great
hearts. The reality is that, although
they may have suffered from heart disease, I don’t think any of them died from
any type of heart disease. Did they?

The point of all of this is that maybe
we should be tracking diseases in the family.
It might help us in the future. A
new line of investigation in the family might be to record the diseases and the
medical history of the family. Maybe it
will enlighten us in the future.

About Me

Welcome to my blog. The goal with this page is to open discussion and share information regarding family history and local history. Your input and comments would be appreciated. I look forward to any comments or criticisms you might want to forward. Finally, I hope you find the information on the page useful and entertaining. Be sure to follw me on twitter and linkedin